Enzymatic bacteria culture testing offers a convenient and reliable procedure for detecting the presence of bacteria in a medical test sample. The medical test sample may be a biopsy or blood culture, for example. Other applications of enzymatic bacteria culture testing are also known in the art.
One type of enzymatic test is the CLOtest.RTM. H. Pylori Rapid Urease test manufactured by Delta West Pry. Ltd. of Bentley, Australia. In the CLOtest.RTM. test procedure, a biopsy specimen is implanted in a test culture disposed in a well on a slide. The presence of bacteria in a specimen is indicated by a color change in the test culture. If bacteria are present, they produce an enzyme which changes the Ph of the culture to induce a color change. If not, then no color change occurs. This procedure thus provides a simple, easy, and definitive visual result indicator.
At room temperature, CLOtest.RTM. slides take about 1 to 24 hours to induce a color change. However, the testing time may be reduced to around 1 to 6 hours by incubating the test sample at 20.degree.-40.degree. Celsius (C) (which is roughly equivalent to human body temperature). Furthermore, for the test to be certified, the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendment (CLIA) requires the test sample to be maintained at a temperature of 30.degree.-40.degree. C. for three hours.
The conventional manner of heating or incubating enzymatic test samples is to place the samples in a closed unit and maintain the temperature of the samples between 30.degree. and 40.degree. C. Conventional units, however, have several drawbacks. The units must be opened to insert or remove samples, which may cause significant heat loss to the samples, possibly resulting in an invalid test. Further, there is a risk that the cover of a unit may be inadvertently left open during incubation.
In addition, conventional units typically must be opened to view the samples and determine their status. This, however, tends to nullify the primary benefit of the enzymatic tests--a clear visual indicator--since the samples cannot be viewed while being incubated without opening the unit.
Therefore, a need exists for a storage and incubation apparatus for medical test samples which provides simpler, easier and more convenient insertion, removal, incubation and viewing of the medical test samples.